bookbinding 2 @ the library

Today my class went to the conservation lab to see the model and exemplar books we have in our collection. Jill organized these books last year, grouping them by century and style: I walk past these shelves every day at work but had never had the occasion to open the boxes containing the books to have a look, so it was exciting to see them all out in the open. I took lots of pictures which you can see if you click "Read more >>" at the end of this post.

But, in case you're going to stop reading before that, here are two pictures of my sunburn from spending just 15 minutes of my lunch break outside today:

High fives?

PS I got a letter in the mail today informing me that I qualify for resident tuition!!! That means my tuition bill will be one third of what it would be for out of state tuition. It also means that we can actually afford for me to go to school, even if I never get an assistantship. Hooray for not having to go into debt!

(And don't forget about the book pictures after the jump!)

So here are just a few of the books that we looked at today: (they were my favorites)

This is a long stitch. We're going to learn how to do this in our class this semester!

Spine detail. I love the button!

Close up of the cover attachment.

Another long stitch. This one was smaller and had a wrap around cover with straps that loop around the buttons on the spine: so clever!

Front flap with straps.

This is an old Coptic binding. Check out those repairs! Love it.

This one has writing in it.

There are pin pricks on the fore edge to mark where the lines of text go. Clever.

The wooden covers of the Coptic.

This is a beautiful little soft cover with a rounded spine: I want to make one like this. It's so subtle and simple and lovely.

Rounded spine detail. Check out the leather end band! It's the details, people.

Detail of inside cover. You can see the support tapes that were sewn onto the text block.

This is an account book, so called because of the style, not because of what's in it.

The inside end papers are reinforced (see the red book cloth and stitches?).

The edges of the text block were marbled. And check out that beefy spine!

The spine folds up when it's open so it lays flat so you can write as close to the gutter as possible. Pretty cool.

This is a covered Coptic made by Kristin, the assistant conservator the U of I Main Library. Isn't it beautiful?

Picture of the cover from a different angle.

The cover. Can you see that the name "Gary Link Frost" is imprinted on the front? It was a gift for Gary from when he received an award.

Detail of the end bands. I like how thick they are and how they curl around onto the cover.

Inside front cover.

Kristin put these great tabs on the pages: love.

The fore edge of the book.

The back.

This is a book... I don't remember the details. But I do remember the story behind those sweet-a end bands.

See how they poke out from the book super far? That means that the book wouldn't stand up straight on a book shelf.

But that was ok because books at this time were stored cover down on a shelf, sometimes with the title written on the fore edges of the book instead of the spine. Awesome.

Phew! That's all. Yay for books and books and more books!